That pottery can be dated, and so tell you the date of the city itself. Bydating the pottery of all the settlements along the ancient lost branches ofthe Nile, that will tell you when each settlement was inhabited. Andtherefore, when that particular branch of the Nile was active.
Every kind of pottery or ceramic has a unique signature that dates it intime, the type of clay, the way it was made, the techniques of firing andglazing, can all be pinpointed to specific periods.
Nowadays it is possible to date within approximately thirty to fifty yearsaccurately by ceramic alone.
So by combining his map of the ancient waterways with his knowledge ofdating pottery, Bietak was able to pinpoint where and when the Nile flowedthrough the delta at each moment in history. What's more, the amounts ofpottery along the old river beds would tell him where the biggest ancientsettlements were.
Just as Montet would have predicted Bietak found that one of these branchesof the Nile known as the Tanitic Branch ran directly past Tanis where Montethad found Piramesse. The problem came when Bietak dated the settlementsalong this branch.
Here is Tanis and this is the course of the Tanitic Branch of the Nile, withnumerous sites along its banks, but no site of dates from the time ofRamesses the Second."Which means this branch of the Nile didn't even exist at the time ofRamesses the Great.
"This eliminates the Tanitic Branch of being active in the time of Ramesses(the) Second, also it rules out that Tanis had been Piramesse"What Bietak had discovered was extraordinary. There was no pottery at Tanisfrom the time of Ramesses the Great, all of it dates from at least 200 yearsafter his death. This meant that despite all of Pierre Montet’s genuinefinds, the great pharaoh couldn't possibly have built his capital city here.
Tanis contained lots of ancient pottery and Montet assumed that like all thestatues and obelisks at the site, it also came from the time of Ramesses theSecond. |